MetaFilter posts tagged with humantraffickinghttp://www.metafilter.com/tags/humantrafficking
Posts tagged with 'humantrafficking' at MetaFilter.Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:37:51 -0800Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:37:51 -0800en-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60The Real U.S. Embassy in Accra is White, not Pinkhttp://www.metafilter.com/163796/The%2DReal%2DUS%2DEmbassy%2Din%2DAccra%2Dis%2DWhite%2Dnot%2DPink
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/12/05/mobsters-ran-a-fake-u-s-embassy-in-ghana-for-10-years-flying-the-flag-and-issuing-visas-for-6000/">Mobsters ran a fake U.S. Embassy in Ghana for 10 years, flying the flag and issuing visas for $6,000</a> <a href="https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2016/12/02/foreign-ghana-security-authorities-shut-down-fake-us-embassy-in-accra/">Foreign, Ghana security authorities shut down fake US Embassy in Accra</a>
<em>This fake US Embassy that operated for 10 years, which category of travellers was it serving? Could they have issued visas to human traffickers? Because $6000 is a colossal amount that very few ordinary travellers can afford. It would therefore, not be out of place to assume that most of the clients of this criminal gang were human traffickers. The crime of human trafficking is a lucrative illegal business generating an amount of $150 billion every year for traffickers.</em> <a href="https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2016/12/05/heads-to-roll-at-ghana-us-mission-following-fake-embassy-scandal/">Heads to roll at Ghana US Mission following fake Embassy scandal</a> tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.163796Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:37:51 -0800chavenet'Praying is not enough'http://www.metafilter.com/162372/Praying%2Dis%2Dnot%2Denough
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-kung-fu-nuns-bike-himalayas-to-oppose-human-trafficking-2016-9?r=US&amp;IR=T&amp;IR=T">Hundreds of Buddhist nuns trained in Kung Fu are cycling through the Himalayas to oppose human trafficking</a> tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.162372Mon, 19 Sep 2016 11:34:12 -0800infini...the need for a hard look at the cultures within police departments.http://www.metafilter.com/160443/the%2Dneed%2Dfor%2Da%2Dhard%2Dlook%2Dat%2Dthe%2Dcultures%2Dwithin%2Dpolice%2Ddepartments
<a href="http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/badge-of-dishonor-top-oakland-police-department-officials-looked-away-as-east-bay-cops-sexually-exploited-and-trafficked-a-teenagerdepartmen/Content?oid=4832543&amp;s">Badge of Dishonor: Top Oakland Police Department Officials Looked Away as East Bay Cops Sexually Exploited and Trafficked a Teenager <small>[East Bay Express]</small></a> According to a stunning set of allegations, a teenage human trafficking victim in the Bay Area was coerced into sex by at least 22 officers over a six month period. <blockquote>"The scandal is unprecedented: According to multiple sources close to the department and the city of Oakland, and documents obtained by the Express, at least fourteen Oakland police officers, three Richmond police, four Alameda County sheriff's deputies, and a federal officer took advantage of the teenager. (The Express is not publishing her real name because she was a minor when her abuse began.) Three Oakland police officers committed statutory rape of Guap when she was under-age. By the state's legal definition, they engaged in human trafficking. The victim says every law-enforcement agent who had sex with her knew she was a sex worker."</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.160443Sat, 18 Jun 2016 17:19:06 -0800FizzWhy I Bought Four Syrian Children Off a Beirut Streethttp://www.metafilter.com/158151/Why%2DI%2DBought%2DFour%2DSyrian%2DChildren%2DOff%2Da%2DBeirut%2DStreet
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/15/why-i-bought-four-syrian-children-off-a-beirut-street/">In Counterpunch,</a> Franklin Lamb, an American academic living in Lebanon writes about his personal experiences with human trafficking of Syrian refugees <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/syrias-children-being-sold-pay-refugee-travel-lebanon-launches-investigation-after-2343201">Lebanon investigates</a> whether Syrian children are being sold.
Others think this is a ridiculous <a href="http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/03/the-journalistic-stunt-of-trafficking-syrian-children/">journalistic stunt</a> from Americans with a savior complex.
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/franklin-lamb/">More articles</a> by Franklin Lamb. tag:metafilter.com,2016:site.158151Fri, 25 Mar 2016 08:29:07 -0800rainydayfilms"...people are guilty if they eat shrimp that we peeled like slaves."http://www.metafilter.com/155549/people%2Dare%2Dguilty%2Dif%2Dthey%2Deat%2Dshrimp%2Dthat%2Dwe%2Dpeeled%2Dlike%2Dslaves
<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8f64fb25931242a985bc30e3f5a9a0b2/ap-global-supermarkets-selling-shrimp-peeled-slaves">Global supermarkets selling shrimp peeled by slaves. by Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan <small>[Associated Press]</small></a> <blockquote>Every morning at 2 a.m., they heard a kick on the door and a threat: Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water. They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the United States. After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants. Children worked alongside them, including a girl so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Some had been there for months, even years, getting little or no pay. Always, someone was watching. No names were ever used, only numbers given by their boss — Tin Nyo Win was No. 31.</blockquote>
<strong>Related:</strong>
- Slavery taints global supply of seafood. <small>[<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/98053222a73e4b5dab9fb81a116d5854/ap-investigation-slavery-taints-global-supply-seafood">Associated Press</a>]</small>
- Myanmar fisherman goes home after 22 years as a slave. <small>[<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d8afe2a8447d4610b3293c119415bd4a/myanmar-fisherman-goes-home-after-22-years-slave">Associated Press</a>]</small>
- AP tracks slave boats to Papua New Guinea. <small>[<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c2fe8406ff7145a8b484deae3f748aa5/ap-tracks-missing-slave-fishing-boats-papua-new-guinea">Associated Press</a>]</small> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.155549Mon, 14 Dec 2015 17:09:42 -0800Fizz"'Human Trafficking' Has Become a Meaningless Term"http://www.metafilter.com/154354/Human%2DTrafficking%2DHas%2DBecome%2Da%2DMeaningless%2DTerm
Does "human trafficking" mean "<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/31/presidential-proclamation-national-slavery-and-human-trafficking-prevent">modern-day slavery</a>," as President Obama says? No, "<a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123302/human-trafficking-has-become-meaningless-term">the word is a way to target marginalized groups like immigrants and sex workers in the name of a (confused or cynical) humanitarianism.</a>" That article from the New Republic discusses the many surprising uses of the phrase "human trafficking," such as a teenage girl who runs away from home and sells sex without anyone else's involvement, and without leaving her own city. However:
<blockquote>The word "trafficking" . . . becomes a way to leverage the image of young women kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. After 9/11, [Alison Bass, author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1611686342/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/">Getting Screwed: Sex Workers and the Law</a></i>] says, the State Department was eager to embrace the language of trafficking as another way to justify immigration restrictions and surveillance inspired in the first place by anti-terrorism—which is why initiatives like the State Department "<a href="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/49600.pdf">Human Smuggling and Terrorist Center</a>" lump together "Human smuggling, trafficking in persons, and clandestine terrorist travel" as "transnational issues that threaten national security."</blockquote>
So what other term should we use? The article quotes Laura Agustín, author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1842778609/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/">Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets &amp; the Rescue Industry</a></em>:
<blockquote>There is no replacement term for trafficking because to use a single term simply disappears all these different situations, encourages reductionism and feeds right into a moralistic agenda of Good vs Bad.</blockquote>
The article concludes that the different uses of "human trafficking" are so disparate that we should be more careful to describe exactly what we really mean, instead of looking for a single better term:
<blockquote>If we're talking about underage sex workers with few other options for survival, we should say that we're talking about underage sex workers with few other options for survival—a discussion that should focus on resources and social service help, not law enforcement. Similarly, if the focus is forced labor conditions, then more attention should be paid to the main industries where that occurs. If the issue is about consensual sex work by adults, then legislators should be honest about using police to harass people for consensual sex work. They shouldn't pretend they're on a noble crusade against "trafficking."</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.154354Sun, 01 Nov 2015 08:19:14 -0800John Cohen"A very difficult time, you say. A very very difficult time."http://www.metafilter.com/150773/A%2Dvery%2Ddifficult%2Dtime%2Dyou%2Dsay%2DA%2Dvery%2Dvery%2Ddifficult%2Dtime
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/27/ali-smith-so-far-the-detainees-tale-extract">The Detainee's Tale by Ali Smith</a> Over the last few weeks, writer Ali Smith has taken part in the <a href="http://refugeetales.org/">Refugee Tales project</a>, a group of volunteers who befriend and support immigration detainees. This is her response:
<blockquote>So: the first thing you remember knowing is that there isn't any more school. Your mother dies when you are three, you don't remember. You never see your father, so you can't remember him. You know, from being told, that your father's family fought with your mother's family; his were Hausa, hers were Christian. So you get given by your father's family to a man in the village and for a short while there's school under the great big tree, where you sit in the shade on the ground and the teacher sits on a seat and you get taught letters and reading. Then the school has to have money so the man you've been given to takes you to the farm. You are six years old. There is definitely no school on the farm.</blockquote>
<small><strong>Story contains descriptions of trauma/distress.</strong> </small> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.150773Sun, 28 Jun 2015 05:27:54 -0800FizzDesperate for a home: the ongoing Rohingya tragedyhttp://www.metafilter.com/149567/Desperate%2Dfor%2Da%2Dhome%2Dthe%2Dongoing%2DRohingya%2Dtragedy
Over the last couple days, <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/10/nearly-600-rescued-off-indonesia-believed-to-be-rohingyas.html">1,600 refugees, many of them Rohingya, have landed in Indonesia and Malaysia</a>. Many more are still <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32686328">stranded at sea</a>. Who are the Rohingya Muslims? They are the <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/myanmars-rohingya-refugees-are-the-worlds-largest-group-of-stateless-people/">worlds largest group of stateless people</a>. And they are largely <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/world/asia/death-stalks-muslims-as-myanmar-cuts-off-aid.html?_r=0">cut off from humanitarian aid</a>.
(<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/123387/Amid-democratic-reform-ethnic-cleansing">previously</a>) tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.149567Tue, 12 May 2015 06:28:19 -0800ghostigerThe Man Camp AKA The Profit Centerhttp://www.metafilter.com/148800/The%2DMan%2DCamp%2DAKA%2DThe%2DProfit%2DCenter
"Post Hurricane Katrina, a whole new American dream was designed for some [South Asian] Indians — <a href="https://in.news.yahoo.com/the-slave-ship-that-ran-from-kerala-to-new-orleans-085329807.html">how to get trapped in a guarded labor camp by an American company</a>". tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148800Mon, 13 Apr 2015 14:22:10 -0800ursus_comiter8 Minutes to Leave the Lifehttp://www.metafilter.com/148642/8%2DMinutes%2Dto%2DLeave%2Dthe%2DLife
In the upcoming A&amp;E "docudrama" <a href="http://realscreen.com/2015/04/02/ae-explores-human-trafficking-in-8-minutes">8 Minutes</a>, Santa Ana vice cop-turned-pastor <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-prostitute-squad-pictures-photogallery.html">Kevin Brown,</a> founder of the faith-based non-profit <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SafePassageOc">Safe Passage OC</a>, poses as a john and tries to convince sex workers to leave the life.
Backed by a team of volunteers, including former sex workers, Brown gives himself eight minutes to make his pitch - ideally before a pimp suspects something is up - and offers to connect the women with shelter, addiction and employment services if they want. Not all of them do.
Of course, it's all filmed. (Sex workers' faces are blurred.) And perhaps inevitably, <a href="http://sexworkersproject.org/downloads/2015/20150320-letter-to-ae-re-8-minutes.pdf">it's</a> <a href="https://www.change.org/p/a-e-networks-do-not-air-the-new-series-8-minutes-on-the-a-e-channel-it-is-highly-offensive-intrusive-on-the-lives-of-sex-workers">drawing</a> <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/19/to-catch-a-sex-worker-a-e-s-awful-exploitative-ambush-show.html">significant</a> <a href="https://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/04/03/22000902/new-aande-show-about-ambushing-shaming-lying-about-sex-workers">criticism</a> for putting a vulnerable population at greater risk. You can watch an episode <a href="http://www.aetv.com/8-minutes/video/welcome-to-houston">here</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.148642Tue, 07 Apr 2015 10:06:14 -0800gottabefunkyTampons against traffickinghttp://www.metafilter.com/147685/Tampons%2Dagainst%2Dtrafficking
<a href="http://publicpractice.org/wp/?page_id=15">Pivot: A Tool to Empower Human Trafficking Victims</a><blockquote>Pivot provides rescue information to human trafficking victims without detection by their captors. Ordinary-looking sanitary pads are distributed by activists and healthcare providers to suspected victims. Hidden inside each pad is an insert with rescue information and a trafficking hotline number. A victims accesses the insert in the privacy of a restroom, detaches the phone number (disguised as a fortune-cookie tab), and flushes the rest of the insert in the toilet.</blockquote> <a href="http://innovatedevelopment.org/2014/03/23/using-feminine-hygiene-products-to-empower-victims-of-human-trafficking/">Using Feminine Hygiene Products To Empower Victims of Human Trafficking</a><blockquote>After working with service providers and listening to the experiences of survivors, the students learned that victims are being watched constantly, often only being left alone while they are using the bathroom. They discovered that victims of trafficking are rarely "rescued", but typically extricate themselves.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.dailyuw.com/news/article_76fab395-b5e4-5690-be25-82f25800ae0e.html">Graduate students use design to combat human trafficking</a><blockquote>"It has to be treated with a lot of care because as soon as you engage with that person you're putting them at risk," Nelson said. "We need to get them information that is critical to their well-being and deliver it in a way that they can understand and take care to not put them at risk. We had this idea about a feminine product: There's a moment around this when a women is likely to be alone, less likely to get in trouble, and she can also think and reflect on her own situation."</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.147685Sat, 07 Mar 2015 04:03:58 -0800LexicaSex workers and the cityhttp://www.metafilter.com/145880/Sex%2Dworkers%2Dand%2Dthe%2Dcity
<blockquote>Despite the claims of reformers like Judge Lippman, [Human Trafficking Intervention Courts] are as controlling as any other court. Prostitutes might be called victims, but they're still arrested, still handcuffed, and still held in cages. The only difference is that they're now in a system that doesn't distinguish between workers and trafficked people. To the courts, anyone who's been arrested for sex work is raw material, incapable of making his or her own choices. Those like Love, who did sex work out of financial necessity, before leaving of her own volition, might as well not exist. </blockquote>
Molly Crabapple: <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/sex-workers-and-the-city-0000550-v22n1">Special Prostitution Courts and the Myth of 'Rescuing' Sex Workers</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2015:site.145880Tue, 06 Jan 2015 02:10:12 -0800MartinWisseHuman trafficking in Iraq and Afghanistan, paid for by US tax dollarshttp://www.metafilter.com/144541/Human%2Dtrafficking%2Din%2DIraq%2Dand%2DAfghanistan%2Dpaid%2Dfor%2Dby%2DUS%2Dtax%2Ddollars
<em><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120269/contractors-violate-us-zero-tolerance-policy-human-trafficking">"We protect women and children, but these are dark-skinned men.... "</a></em> <em>It is not surprising that labor trafficking is seen as a lesser evil than sex trafficking. The argument often goes: </em>Is it really so bad to charge a worker in India a one-time fee in exchange for a job overseas with higher wages than he could find in his own country?<em> But recruitment fees essentially create a system of indentured servitude. Workers usually take out high-interest loans in their home country to pay the fee, and the payments can trap them in their new jobs. Recruiters often mislead workers about their salary and the location of their job—promises of high-paying jobs in Jordanian hotels turn into custodial positions on U.S. military bases in warzones.
"The government says it has a zero tolerance policy, and yet there's fairly credible allegations that these guys have been involved in trafficking and they continue to win government contracts," says Steven Watt, a human rights attorney at the ACLU. "It's pretty far from a zero tolerance policy."
McCahon is more blunt: "<strong>This is the only situation in which the government uses U.S. tax dollars to fund human trafficking," he says. "It's not that we're idly sitting by; we're actively paying for it.</strong> It's like the U.S. government is the John, telling the pimp, 'We need bodies here, but we aren't going to look at how you got them, or if they are even getting paid.'" . . .
He cited one case where an Indian college graduate named Ramesh paid $5,000 upfront to an agent who promised an $800 per month salary to work for a U.S. contractor in Iraq. Once in Iraq, he was only offered $150 per month, but took the job because he felt he had no other choice. When the loan shark became dissatisfied with the repayment rate, he sexually assaulted Ramesh's sister. His sister hung herself and his mother fell into a state of shock. When Ramesh returned home to India, he and his surviving family members poisoned themselves.
While labor trafficking is clearly a human rights issue, McCahon is quick to point out that recruitment fees are also procurement fraud. Under the current contract, Dyncorp and Fluor pay Ecolog to bring them a specified number of workers. The contractors assume responsibility for transporting and housing their workers and are reimbursed by the government for the associated costs. "So if a subcontractor brings over 8,000 workers, and each worker comes with a $2,500 recruitment fee, that's a $20 million black money kickback," explained McCahon. "This is the largest contract fraud in the history of reconstruction." <strong>The Army reimburses Dyncorp and Fluor</strong> for all of their allowable costs, plus 3 to 6 percent of their costs as profit—so <strong>the higher the costs, the higher the profit</strong> . . .
No contractor has ever been disciplined for a trafficking violation under the current Federal Acquisition Regulation, the set of rules for government purchases of goods and services. This means that even though there has been evidence of contractors violating anti-trafficking rules, <strong>there is no official negative past performance record, so they continue to be eligible to receive top-dollar government contracts.</strong></em>
That article from The New Republic gives you 9 more links with background information about human trafficking by US government contractors, including <a href="https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/hrp_traffickingreport_web_0.pdf">this 98-page ACLU report from 2012</a> (not 2011, as the article says) which "aims to provide a comprehensive account of the ongoing trafficking, deceptive recruitment, forced labor and abuse of TCNs [third-country nationals] serving under U.S. Government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan."</a> (PDF link.)
Metafilter has been following this issue for a decade now: <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/104820/The-Invisible-Army">2011</a>, <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/47206/Sierra-Leonese-Paid-050-an-Hour-in-Iraq">2005</a>, and <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/47873/Pentagon-has-yet-to-ban-contractors-from-using-forced-labor">another from 2005</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.144541Sun, 16 Nov 2014 14:16:07 -0800John CohenNow that we have met with paradox we have some hope of progress.http://www.metafilter.com/143081/Now%2Dthat%2Dwe%2Dhave%2Dmet%2Dwith%2Dparadox%2Dwe%2Dhave%2Dsome%2Dhope%2Dof%2Dprogress
Somaly Mam<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/132895/Sex-trafficking-fraud-and-money-at-the-Somaly-Mam-Foundation"> [previously]</a> responds to the Newsweek article last spring that raised questions regarding the legitimacy of her work as a Cambodian anti-trafficking activist, tainting the nearly two-decades-long work on behalf of victims that catapulted her into the global spotlight. <a href="http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/inspirational-women/somalys-story">"I didn't lie."</a> tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.143081Fri, 26 Sep 2014 08:39:49 -0800EmorI almost became a victim of human traffickinghttp://www.metafilter.com/136980/I%2Dalmost%2Dbecame%2Da%2Dvictim%2Dof%2Dhuman%2Dtrafficking
Writer and sports personality <a href="http://brittneycason.com/">Brittney Cason</a> thought she had been recruited for what seemed like a legitimate network job covering the 2014 Sochi Olympics. <a href="http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/it-happened-to-me-human-trafficking-at-the-sochi-olympics">Only days before she left, flags started going up.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.136980Wed, 26 Feb 2014 09:42:47 -0800dry white toastSex-trafficking, fraud and money at the Somaly Mam Foundationhttp://www.metafilter.com/132895/Sex%2Dtrafficking%2Dfraud%2Dand%2Dmoney%2Dat%2Dthe%2DSomaly%2DMam%2DFoundation
Cambodia Daily just ran two controversial features on Somaly Mam, a well-known trafficking survivor and head of the anti-trafficking non-profit, <a href="http://www.somaly.org/">the Somaly Mam Foundation</a> that funds shelters in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Somaly Mam, Cambodia's most well-known anti-trafficking activist, partly due to Nicholas Kristof whose "live tweeting" a brothel raid with Somaly Mam was <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/11/08/nick_kristof_to_the_rescue/">roundly criticised by other NGOs in Cambodia</a>, is accused of false stories of abuse, murder and kidnapping of young women, and the organization of hugely over-paying top staff including Somaly Mam herself. <a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/secrets-and-lies-44964/">Sex Slave Story Revealed to be Fabricated</a> interviews one of the women who as a teenager spoke about her ordeal as a survivor of trafficking to raise funds for SMF, a story she now says wasn't hers but a script she was chosen to repeat because she was bright and well-spoken, in exchange for free education at a shelter. Another survivor's story, Long Pros, is also in question with an alleged childhood injury instead of a brothel owner's eye gouging.
Also mentioned is the UN speech where Somaly Mam claimed young women in a brothel were shot by the Cambodian police during a rescue attempt, <a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archive/somaly-mam-admits-to-inaccuracies-in-speech-to-un-1590/">later recanted</a>, and her <a href="http://marianepearl.com/insearchofhope.php?chapter=1">earlier claims that her daughter was kidnapped and gang-raped</a> in response to Somaly Mam's work, <a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archive/more-questions-over-somaly-mams-kidnapping-claim-1592/">a claim denied by her ex-husband</a> (who now runs an anti-trafficking NGO himself in Cambodia) and the daughter.
Why use false or exaggerated stories when the <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/dispatches/2011/05/a_brief_tour_of_the_cambodian_sex_industry.html">reality of sex work</a> in Cambodia is so <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/20/cambodia-sex-workers-face-unlawful-arrests-and-detention">bleak</a> and <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/society-oblivious-rape">violent</a>?
As the accompanying feature <a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/selected-features/the-rise-of-the-somaly-mam-foundation-44976/">The Rise of the Somaly Mam Foundation</a> reports, because it pays very very well.
Somaly Mam's salary has steadily increased along with other executive staff to nearly 14% of the 2011 expenditures, nearly as much as the 16% that went to the main shelter in Cambodia. That puts SMF in company with <a href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=topten.detail&listid=8#.Ult3XWSSBhg">other charities with highly-paid executive staff and less going to the actual programs</a> - Somaly Mam Foundation in 2011 managed to hit just 23% in programs grants, the other 77% else going to fundraising, administration and staff. Ron Robinson who topped Charity Navigator's list for overpaid charity executives, took 3.4% of Young America's Foundation, less than half the share that the CEO position at SMF, held by Bill Livermore and then Rigmor Schneider, US$253,429 for 7% of the total budget.
The SMF's <a href="http://issuu.com/somalymamfoundation/docs/smf_2011_annual_report_abridged_fin/14?e=0/5049506">annual financial report</a> for the same period reports a very different picture from their <a href="http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/260/260392207/260392207_201112_990.pdf">990IRS form for 2011</a> (Charity Navigator requires registration), claiming 66% of their expenses went to "grants and other programs".
Bangkok-based journalist Andrew Drummond's <a href="http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2013/10/exposed-cambodian-charity-scandal-fools.html">tabloidish take</a> and Khmer440, an expat forum with bleak humor, <a href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33455">discuss the new reports and rumors</a>. Criticism of the SMF and Afesip has simmered for a long time, from <a href="http://dailyxtra.com/canada/news/sex-work-in-cambodia">sex workers</a> and <a href="http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13243">sex work organizations</a>, other <a href="http://penhpal.com/2012/04/somaly-mam-overreaches-herself/">aid workers</a> and <a href="http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2012/05/25/whats-the-truth-behind-somaly-mam/">others in Cambodia</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.132895Wed, 16 Oct 2013 10:11:27 -0800syncopeThis time, I'm innocent.http://www.metafilter.com/120645/This%2Dtime%2DIm%2Dinnocent
<a href="http://www.miaminewtimes.com/slideshow/from-porkys-to-panamanian-prison-web-extra-37928593/">Since the 80s</a> Tony Galeota managed Porky's, a Hialeah dive <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/07/us/russian-submarine-drifts-into-center-of-a-brazen-drug-plot.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm">notorious</a> for drugs, prostitution, and violence, where he was <a href="http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/10/sex_and_drugs_in_the_champagne.php">part pimp, part bouncer, and completely untouchable</a>. When he left to open a bona fide brothel in Panama, Galeota thought the <a href="http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20070512185127612">country's lax prostitution laws</a> (NSFW) would make him rich. <a href="http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2012-10-04/news/tony-galeota-from-running-porky-s-miami-s-most-notorious-strip-joint-to-rotting-in-a-panamanian-jail/0/">Instead, he's trapped in a labyrinthine legal system, alone and unable to speak Spanish.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.120645Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:44:12 -0800Potomac AvenueThe Invisible Armyhttp://www.metafilter.com/104820/The%2DInvisible%2DArmy
The U.S.'s military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq are <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/06/110606fa_fact_stillman?currentPage=all">mostly staffed by Third Country Nationals (TCN), who are often victims of human trafficking.</a> <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/47206/Sierra-Leonese-Paid-050-an-Hour-in-Iraq">Previously</a> <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/47873/Pentagon-has-yet-to-ban-contractors-from-using-forced-labor">discussed</a> on the Blue tag:metafilter.com,2011:site.104820Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:41:59 -0800reenum"My bet is that, within two years, you're going to read something about me in a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church."http://www.metafilter.com/100306/My%2Dbet%2Dis%2Dthat%2Dwithin%2Dtwo%2Dyears%2Dyoure%2Dgoing%2Dto%2Dread%2Dsomething%2Dabout%2Dme%2Din%2Da%2Dscandal%2Dthat%2Dlooks%2Dlike%2Dit%2Dhas%2Dnothing%2Dto%2Ddo%2Dwith%2Dthe%2Dchurch
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_wright?currentPage=all">Paul Haggis Vs. the Church of Scientology.</a> Haggis' defection was discussed <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/86143/A-bad-weekend-for-Scientology">previously</a> on the blue, as were <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/89869/A-Kafkaesque-journey">allegations of abusive practices in Scientology's Sea Org</a>. This week's New Yorker includes a massive investigative piece by Lawrence Wright, part of an <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/paul-haggis-release-scientology-story-paul-thomas-anderson/#more-95211">upcoming book</a> by Wright that has already been<a href="http://www.wordandfilm.com/2011/01/paul-haggis-co-writing-a-book-on-fleeing-scientology/"> the subject of some speculation</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2011:site.100306Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:43:12 -0800availablelightYou are alive, you have to do it.http://www.metafilter.com/100286/You%2Dare%2Dalive%2Dyou%2Dhave%2Dto%2Ddo%2Dit
<em>I've never known of a single colleague who has been tortured, or who lives with the threat of death and persecution for their work, in such a confused state of mind that they believe that working in the defence of individual and collective freedoms is an act of heroism. We know full well that <a href="http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2011-01-24-cacho-en.html">it is nothing more than an exercise in survival and shared dignity</a>.</em> Mexican journalist, feminist and human rights activist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Cacho">Lydia Cacho</a> on the motivations behind and costs of working under constant threat of death and torture. tag:metafilter.com,2011:site.100286Sun, 06 Feb 2011 05:54:18 -0800Ahab"Please try to respect the youth. They are the ones who are going to build the next generation."http://www.metafilter.com/97926/Please%2Dtry%2Dto%2Drespect%2Dthe%2Dyouth%2DThey%2Dare%2Dthe%2Dones%2Dwho%2Dare%2Dgoing%2Dto%2Dbuild%2Dthe%2Dnext%2Dgeneration
Now in its fourth year, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/">CNN Heroes</a> highlights and rewards "Everyday People Changing the World." This year's Hero of the Year (chosen by public poll) is <a href="http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/anuradha_koirala_does_it_all_at_maiti_nepal">Anuradha</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive10/anuradha.koirala.html">Koirala</a>, whose group <a href="http://www.maitinepal.org/">Maiti Nepal</a> has <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/11/21/cnnheroes.hero.of.year/index.html">rescued more than 12,000 women and girls from sex slavery along the India / Nepal border since 1993</a>. Koirala will receive $100,000 to continue her work with Maiti Nepal, in addition to the $25,000 awarded to each of the top 10 Heroes honored.
Last year's Hero, <a href="http://www.asianjournal.com/aj-magazine/something-filipino/3027-efren-penaflorida-an-ordinary-man-doing-extraordinary-things.html">Efren Peñaflorida</a>, "<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/16/cnnheroes.penaflorida.update/index.html">was honored for creating mobile "pushcart classrooms," carts stocked with books, chalkboards and other supplies, that bring education to poor children in the Philippines</a>. Since 1997, he and more than 12,000 teenage volunteers have taught basic reading and writing skills to more than 1,800 children living on the streets." The linked article also notes that winning the award raised public awareness, helped fund an educational facility and: "With Peñaflorida's consultation, the pushcart classroom model started by his nonprofit organization, Dynamic Teen Company, has been replicated more than 50 times by different organizations and institutions across the Philippines." tag:metafilter.com,2010:site.97926Fri, 26 Nov 2010 07:49:03 -0800zarqInside the world of the Bacha Bazihttp://www.metafilter.com/91299/Inside%2Dthe%2Dworld%2Dof%2Dthe%2DBacha%2DBazi
In Afghanistan, the <a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/246409/Boys_in_Afghanistan_Sold_Into_Prostitution_Sexual_Slavery"><em>bacha bereesh</em></a> -- <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSISL1848920071119">"boy without a beard"</a> -- is dressed in women's clothes and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNUxq8rI6lM">taught to dance like a woman</a> at weddings or parties. After the dancing is over, the boy is often shared as sexual chattel among his male audience (the <em>bacha bazi</em>) which is often composed of powerful warloads. The underground practice, though illegal, <a href="http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/bacha_bazi_afghan_tradition_expolits_young_boys">is widespread despite Taliban homophobia</a>. The PBS series Frontline went <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid"> inside the world of the <em>bacha bazi</em></a>, who seemed willing enough to talk about the forbidden practice. [54-minute flash video, well worth watching.] <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/70435/Dancing-boys-of-Afghanistan">Previously.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2010:site.91299Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:04:16 -0800mudpuppieSlavery in Burmahttp://www.metafilter.com/62549/Slavery%2Din%2DBurma
<a href="http://www.ocweekly.com/features/features/from-hunter-to-hunted/27362/">From Hunter to Hunted</a> "In his quest to <a href=http://www.ocweekly.com/features/features/breaking-into-brothels/27392/>free slaves</a> around the world, <a href=http://www.ocweekly.com/index.php?option=com_slideshow&type=1&gallery=419&Itemid=296>Aaron Cohen</a> thought he'd seen it all. Then he went to Myanmar." tag:metafilter.com,2007:site.62549Sun, 01 Jul 2007 18:07:57 -0800homunculusHuman Traffickinghttp://www.metafilter.com/42591/Human%2DTrafficking
The 2005 <strong>Trafficking in Persons Report</strong> by the US State Department has been released. It reviews 150 countries.<a href="http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46606.htm">The introduction provides a broad overview</a> of the report with anecdotal stories, legislation imperatives, methodology, definitions, specific country reviews and suggested remedies. It is a commendable document and well worth perusing. <a href="http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_human_beings.html">UN page.</a> <small><small><a href="http://www.resourceshelf.com/">via</a></small></small> tag:metafilter.com,2005:site.42591Tue, 07 Jun 2005 09:45:45 -0800peacayA tale of modern day slaveryhttp://www.metafilter.com/34910/A%2Dtale%2Dof%2Dmodern%2Dday%2Dslavery
<a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/moderndayslavery/index.html ">Slavery is not just the shameful stuff of history books - not in Florida.</a> Last year, 7 journalists spent 9 months in a behind-the-scenes exploration of the state's immigrant workers. In more than 30 articles and photo essays, they revealed a system where workers are threatened, beaten, locked up, injured, forced into prostitution, and trapped in a spiral of debt and abuse. Powerful forces are arrayed against them in a state where agricultural laws are shaped by politician-farmers who have a vested interest in the status quo. <b>- more -</b> tag:metafilter.com,2004:site.34910Wed, 11 Aug 2004 05:02:00 -0800madamjujujive